The Emperor's Daughter Read online

  A sigh escapes the grand duchess before she continues. “You knew the man Talon became after his life was flipped upside down. What was he like?” she pleads, her golden eyes imploring me for anything to fill the void I can so easily see growing inside her as it grows in me. “I mean, I know he was a good king. A great one; I’d expect nothing else. I would see him for Concilium sessions. But... how was he? How was he coping, handling the changes?”

  She notices my silence, my hesitation. “I’m sorry, I hardly even know you. I’ve been rude. You don’t have to say anything. It hurts me to talk about him too, but not as much as I think it should. I guess it hasn’t really registered that my brother is never coming back.”

  I sit in silence, at a loss for words. The grand duchess of the empire, the future emperor of Namari, is sitting cross-legged and vulnerable on my bed, pouring her heart out to me, begging for someone—anyone—to listen. The only things I know about her are what Talon would tell me. It seems, though we are strangers, the death of someone we cared for is something we have in common. And that something is big enough to bring the Namari heiress to dump her emotions on me. A few stray tears begin to fall down her freckled cheeks, but she is quick to wipe them away.

  “Your Highness—” I begin to say.

  She interrupts me mid-sentence. “Calla. It’s just Calla. Please.”

  “Calla,” I say kindly, the syllables of her first name alone feeling odd on my tongue, “I’m sorry.” I weigh the words down with as much genuine sympathy as I can muster.

  “I’m sorry, too,” she says, and the tears fall in waterfalls now. Calla throws her arms around me, crying into my shoulder.

  I hug her close, this royal girl who is nothing more than a stranger and my superior, a silent bond forming between us over a loved one’s death.

  Chapter 3

  Calla

  I awake to Blade bursting through the mahogany doors. I blink my eyes open lazily, light pouring in through the half-drawn drapes, my head resting on one of the plush pillows. Rysen, on the opposite end of the massive mattress, fusses slightly but doesn’t wake.

  Blade looks frantic, his chin-length brown hair unkempt, the stubble on his face a little longer than usual, which is a strong indicator that he hasn’t had the chance to shave this morning. “Turn on the news,” he pants. He must have sprinted here.

  I do as he commands, snatching the remote from the night table beside the bed. The wall above the fireplace, once bare, glows to life, the telescreen flickering on to the main menu. I scroll through the several options until I find News. I select it, a dark-skinned newscaster with a Mordan accent appearing on the screen.

  “Breaking news this morning in the Namari Empire. In Roran, what seems to be a terrorist attack has taken place at the Province’s Imperial Air Force Base. Seven casualties have been reported so far. All of the deceased are Imperial Airmen,” the newscaster says bluntly.

  A hand flies to my mouth. A terrorist attack. But from whom?

  I hadn’t noticed Rysen wake from his sleep. I turn to find him sitting upright behind me on the bed, staring blankly at the screen. Blade takes a seat next to me, looping an arm over my shoulders and pulling me into his chest.

  The newscaster continues. “Shortly after the attack, we were sent this video.”

  The Mordan’s face disappears and is replaced by a man I vaguely recognize. Though I don’t know him, I recognize him as one of the Dane brothers, sons of the former Rorani king that betrayed the empire. This man is maybe a year or two older than myself and has long, sand-colored curls that are loosely pulled out of his rugged face. The flag of Roran is hanging behind him and a rifle hangs over his broad shoulders.

  “People of Namari,” he says, a Rorani accent dripping from his words, “my name is Kainan. You may be wondering why I am appearing on your screens. The false King Talon of Roran, bastard son of the tyrant Augustus the Fourth, is dead by my hand. And now, so are several others, killed in the attack I ordered on Roran’s Imperial Air Force Base. I am before you now, Namari, to urge you to action. We of Roran Province are tired of the unending reign of the Renald dynasty! Who are they to command us like the elements they control? Together, we can fight for Provincial independence and return to the old ways!”

  He pauses and beside him on the screen appears a video. I recognize the location the video is set in: Darinthe Manor of Roran, my brother’s home. And there he stands—Talon Renald, strong and tall and handsome as ever, shoulder length blonde hair tied half-up as usual. Beside him is his young wife—a supposed Roran native with an uncharacteristically dark and stunning complexion—Sybella.

  My breath catches in my throat as I realize what this is. The gunshot echoes loudly through the telescreen’s speakers and my brother falls dead with a heart-wrenching thud on the marble floors. The clip disappears just as the court on screen had erupted into chaos and panic.

  “You see?” Kainan bellows through the screen. “See how easily they can be killed? The Primori, despite their innate powers, are not our superiors! Join me, Namari, join Roran, in the fight to regain the status as seven independent nations. No more of this unholy interracial mixing that the Renald emperors have allowed in the past. The gods frown on the sins of Namari, the sins encouraged by our Renald oppressors! Return to your homes, to racial purity! Join the fight, join the Uprising. Extinguish the Eternal Flame!”

  Kainan’s face vanishes and that of the newscaster reappears. I don’t hear a word he says. All I can hear is the single gunshot that ended my brother’s life; all I can see is Talon collapsing, the life leaving his body. The denial I had felt earlier vanishes now that I’ve seen him murdered with my own eyes. All sensation fades away, leaving me as empty as a shell.

  ∞∞∞

  I don’t know how much time passes. I don’t know how long I sit there in Blade’s arms, Ryse staring at the floor, silent and distant. I don’t react when my father enters the room and whispers something to Blade. I don’t get up from the bed when Blade does, and I don’t move when he kisses my forehead before leaving, mumbling some inaudible words that I assume were meant to comfort me had I heard them.

  Finally, after who knows how long, Blade returns from wherever he had disappeared to. He grabs my arms, pulling me gently to my feet.

  “She hasn’t said a word,” Rysen says, concern twisting his handsome features.

  Noticing the movement, Blade grabs my elbow and begins leading me out of the room. He says something to Rysen before we leave, but I don’t pay attention to the words. Blade closes the door and ushers me through the palace halls until we reach my bedchamber. Lady Mira is there, sitting stiffly on one of the sofas.

  “I can take her from here, thank you,” she says kindly to Blade. She takes me in her thin arms and leads me to the bathroom. Most rooms in the palace remain as they were a millennium ago, though the bathrooms and kitchens are frequently renovated and modernized. I focus on that mundane, meaningless thought as Lady Mira loosens my hair from its bun and combs out the curly lengths of it. Blade had followed us into the room.

  He places a calloused hand on my shoulder, squeezing gently. “Send for me once you’ve finished. I worry about her—about both of you—and don’t want to be away longer than I have to.” Mira nods and Blade exits the bathroom.

  Once the knots are out of my hair, she helps me undress. My t-shirt and leggings are easy to remove, but my movements are slow, hesitant. Mira turns on the shower, steam rising from the tile as the scalding water hits it. She then leaves me to finish undressing.

  I fall into the motions, mostly out of muscle memory rather than actual thought. Clean, I step out of the hot shower and get dressed, throwing on another pair of leggings, not wanting to bother with actual pants.

  Searching through my closet, hair still sopping, I find an ocean-blue shirt with the Imperial Navy symbol emblazoned on the front in white. A small stain marks part of the white emblem, and I recall the day I had snuck up behind Talon in the kitchen and scared him
. He’d jumped, spilling coffee on this very shirt. I was seventeen, then—that was just two years ago, weeks before Talon was married and became a king. The memory brings tears to my eyes as I throw on the shirt. It still carries a hint of his smell—a tangy scent, like citrus, mixed with something like the smell of rain.

  I step out of my closet, wet curls dripping on the floor, to find my room empty. I can hear whispers in the hall. I throw open my doors to see Blade, Rysen, and my father speaking in hushed tones. They fall silent when they see me, which finally urges a reaction out of me, bringing back a trace of my personality, my senses, myself.

  “Tell me what you were just talking about,” I demand. When they hesitate, I speak again. “As Grand Duchess and High General of the Imperial Armed Forces, I command that you tell me.” When my mother had died, everyone in the palace had treated me like a fragile porcelain doll that would break at any moment. I was much younger then, though I still couldn't stand the whispers and hushed tones that faded into nothing whenever I was near. I hated it then and refuse to tolerate it a second time.

  My father is the one to speak. “Kainan, as I'm sure you realized, is one of the infamous Dane brothers, sons of the late Emeric Dane who committed treason before your brother became king. Rysen is the other, Kainan being his older brother.”

  “Your brother,” I say bluntly. It isn’t a question; I doubt he’d lie and say he was a traitor’s brother for the hell of it. “Do I need to question your own loyalty, then, if your brother is so capable of inciting rebellion and encouraging chaos?”

  Ryse shakes his head. “Kainan stopped being my brother long ago.” There isn’t a trace of doubt or hesitation in his voice.

  “Very well,” I state, spinning back around and returning to my room.

  Chapter 4

  Rysen

  It took three weeks for Calla to finally speak to me again. I don’t blame her; if roles were reversed and Talon had been the one to kill Kainan, despite my current indifference toward my brother, I would have a tough time confronting her too.

  Seeing my older brother’s face on the screen had not surprised me. Nor did his confession. What surprised me that day was the way he spoke—the words he had said were not his, not things he would believe in. At least, not things the Kainan I knew would believe in. It’s been ten years since I’ve seen him last, which means it is entirely possible he’s morphed into someone new, someone even worse than who he was when we were young.

  For three weeks I stayed in the palace, spending the majority of my time with Blade and working with the Imperial Guard. The grand duchess isolated herself, speaking only with her father about what I assumed to be war strategy and plans of action. She had seemed so fragile when I first met her. Now, she’s a war machine, the fearless High General Calla and right hand to the emperor that the people have always seen her as.

  “Have they gotten anywhere on the hunt for Kainan?” I ask as Blade and I make our way back to the palace from the barracks courtyard. The sun is slowly beginning to disappear beneath the vast blue expanse of Oceania to the west, waves audible crashing against the seaside cliffs surrounding the northwestern edges Stonefire Palace grounds. In front of me, to the east, Sunset Bridge stretches over the ravine separating Stonefire from Capital City, the Harbinger River rushing violently beneath the multi-leveled structure.

  “No. Calla wants to travel to Roran with one of her elite legions to hunt for him herself, as well as increase the overall military presence in the Province, but the emperor won’t allow it. Augustus may not show it to keep up appearances, but Talon’s death is taking its toll. He won’t risk losing Calla, too.”

  As if on cue, the emperor’s daughter appears around the corner of one of the palace’s outer buildings. I can practically feel her intense emotions radiating from her skin like an aura. She’s pissed off at something.

  “Shit,” Blade mumbles as we near her. “What happened?”

  She halts a foot or so from us, her amber eyes flaring like the fire that burns within her. “Another terrorist attack. This time on the Navy vessels docked in Roran's harbor city. Three battleships and an aircraft carrier now rest at the bottom of Marlen's Bay, and hundreds of Imperial Sailors are dead.”

  The news is devastating, but not surprising. “You knew he would attack your military forces in again, though. Right? How were the rebels successful a second time?”

  I swear that’s actual heat I feel when she adjusts her gaze, burning stare landing on me. “Are you questioning my family’s ability to protect our empire?”

  “No, Your Highness.” She narrows her eyes and I add, “I only... I’m curious, is all. I meant no disrespect.”

  “These particular ships were not part of the Imperial Navy in Roran; they were from Riva Capital Bay's Naval installation in Darci and had docked in Roran temporarily for reasons unknown. I wasn’t paying attention to them because they weren’t supposed to be there. All the Armed Forces know that we’re in a time of crisis and ships should all remain in their respective harbors. So, what I need to know is why those ships were there, why they disobeyed direct orders. My guess is Uprising traitors high up in the Navy's ranks are involved in this.” For the first time in weeks, Calla looks directly at me, the anger burning bright in her fiery eyes. The girl who had cried in my arms is long gone, replaced by a vengeful force of nature.

  “Will your father approve your request to garrison more forces in Roran now?” Blade asks curtly.

  She shakes her head. “No. We will just have to hope the military power we have there at this time is enough to quell this rebellion.” There is heavy doubt in her voice—it’s clear enough that she has little faith in the emperor’s decision, but his word is law when it comes to military action. Even the Concilium and the High General can do little to interfere.

  With nothing left to say, Calla trudges past us to the military buildings on the palace grounds. Blade leaves me standing in the courtyard as he disappears around the same corner Calla had come from. I follow the grand duchess, catching up to her just before she reaches the military command center across the courtyard from the Imperial Guard barracks.

  “Your Highness,” I call out. She spins around to face me, the boots of her military uniform grinding the gravel beneath her feet.

  Her face softens, some of the anger leaving her features. “It’s still Calla to you, Rysen.” She flashes me a bright grin. “I’m sorry for avoiding you. I’ve just been very stressed out lately.”

  I smile at her welcoming tone, glad to not be facing the cold, ruthless military general she’s been these last few weeks. “Calla,” I say. “No need to apologize. I wanted to ask if I can help search for my brother. I don’t know him well, but I know him better than anyone else here.”

  “I would accept your offer, but there really is no manhunt going on. My father is choosing to sit idly in the palace and wait to see how things pan out while military officials like myself handle business. However, without his compliance we really can’t do much on our end, either.”

  “You’re just going to sit here and let this Uprising tear Namari apart from the inside?” I can’t hold back the frustration that is bubbling within. Talon was my best friend, Kainan the monster of my adolescence—I won’t accept sitting by and waiting. And I know Calla will agree, that she wants to see my brother in a prison cell and the Uprising in ashes as much as I do.

  She says nothing and turns to walk away. I grab her arm, jerking her back around to face me, letting my vexation pour out at her. “You’re the daughter of the emperor, the grand duchess of Namari, the high general of the Imperial Armed Forces, and a Primori Fireblood. If anyone can stop this rebellion—stop my brother—it’s you, Calla.”

  Something in her face shifts, but her stance on the issue remains the same. “No one is more upset about the inaction than I am, but my family and I are still in mourning, Rysen. Give it some time. Let my father do what he thinks is best, and we will see what happens and if more force is needed.”r />
  I stand there dumbfounded as she walks away. Just a few moments ago, she was chomping at the bit, eager to make some dramatic, war-ending move against Kainan and the Uprising. It’s not possible that she so quickly changed her mind and decided to roll over and let her father take what we both know is the wrong course.

  I spin around to see Blade leaning against a white stone wall, smirking amusedly.

  “She may be the most powerful woman in the nation—maybe even the planet—but her father is still the emperor. He has the final word on everything, and if he says no, it won’t be done.”

  I shake my head. “Calla just doesn’t seem like the kind of person to adhere to her father’s commands, regardless of his position.”

  “Oh, she isn’t,” he replies with a chuckle. “Don’t believe a word she just said. She’s planning something. But if she wants you involved, she’ll come to you. Don’t force it.”

  ∞∞∞

  I go to bed early that night. A few hours later, someone jerks my shoulder, wrenching me out of my dreams. I blink, my eyes adjusting to the darkness of my room. Calla stands over my bed, the small flame cradled in her hand casting a soft glow on her face and revealing a mischievous twinkle in her eyes.

  “What the—”

  “Shh!” she interrupts. “Get dressed and come with me.”

  This must be what Blade was talking about, I realize. Whatever she’s been up to, she’s about to get me involved. A little too excited, I do as she says, but not without question. However, every attempt I make to inquire gets met with a shush. I give up, resolving to silently follow Calla’s orders. I dress quickly, throwing on jeans and a t-shirt, before she drags me into the hall. She hurries along the corridor, her bare feet tapping lightly on the marble floors, and ushers for me to follow close behind. Strangely, none of the Royal Guardsmen can be seen patrolling the halls.